Author: Ryan Walsh
Date: 06/05/2026

Introduction

Keyword cannibalisation is when a business creates multiple pages that try to rank for the same keyword.

Now, some who are unfamiliar with SEO may believe, well, surely that’s a good thing? This implies more opportunities to rank multiple times on Google’s first page. However, experts among us will know that it can sometimes confuse Google and dilute your rankings.

Therefore, it’s basically when two or more pages compete with each other in Google’s organic results. Because another business may have a clearer answer set on one page, well, Google is likely to rank that page higher than a website that’s answering the same question multiple times.

What’s the solution?

We shall come to this in more detail later on; however, an expert should decide which page is strongest and the main page. Then there are multiple methods to resolve; these vary depending on the circumstances and what the marketing consultant deems the best approach. However, available fixes could involve 301-redirects. It could also involve, perhaps, varying the weaker pages to address a slightly different query.

What Is Keyword Cannibalisation?

It’s often a subject that many businesses can’t figure out what the issue is, or why they are not getting as many sales as they expected, due to keyword cannibalisation issues.

However, the general rule is that ideally, businesses want to reinforce and make clear that one page answers one set of queries. It’s set up, for example, to act as a landing page for that exact product. When you create multiple pages, you’re causing dilution.

It’s similar to conflicting citation issues regarding local search engine optimisation. That is, Google’s algorithm can get confused. In this regard, Google gets confused about where the business is located because of a potential mix-up of addresses.

However, regarding the keyword cannibalisation issue, Google’s algorithm gets confused about which page best answers that query. And confusion causes Google to doubt the website, instead preferring the ranked pages published by competitors, which sometimes makes it crystal clear that there is only one page that answers and offers that product.

Merging pages

It’s important to note that an expert marketing consultant should advise on the best course of action for your business. However, one option when keyword cannibalisation is present is to list all the affected pages. Sometimes, marketing agencies keep the stronger page in place and redirect the weaker URL to it.

Now, what you don’t want to do is go deleting pages. The reason is that even if keyword cannibalisation is present, each page, or multiple pages, could have backlinks leading to them.

By just deleting pages, well, you could be losing out on link equity.

Why does keyword cannibalisation occur in the first place?

Too much overlapping content marketing

This happens a lot, especially when writing articles. Without a “content calendar” in place, it’s possible to keep writing blog posts about, well, pretty much the same thing. This means content marketing will start to overlap, leading to keyword cannibalisation.

Poor website architecture and internal linking

Googlebot is the tool Google uses to crawl and index pages.

Now it also uses this bot to understand the website’s content marketing hierarchy.

For example, Google wants to understand, within an e-commerce website, which are the main product pages. Now, one way that we SEOs show which pages are more important within a website is by using internal linking.

How do you prevent keyword cannibalisation in the first place?

Have a plan

So, one of the best ways to prevent keyword cannibalisation is to plan, and we would recommend creating a content calendar.

The reason for this is simple: when you create a content calendar, you can set out, for example, what you will be writing about in your articles for, say, the next 6 months.

This allows you to plan which queries the content marketing will answer. It also allows you to improve rankings for a wide range of keywords.

The opposite of this would be to have no plan, to keep writing blog posts that answer the same questions. This can lead to over-optimisation and keyword cannibalisation issues.

What does “rank swapping” actually mean?

This is a term used to describe a situation in which a business ranks for a keyword, yet its pages bounce around and change. For example, for the term “sports car insurance”, one week page A ranks for that term, then the next week page B ranks for that term.
This indicates that there are two pages with keyword cannibalisation issues.

Should we consolidate competing pages?

It’s best to source some good SEO advice to help you consolidate pages or set up 301 redirects. The reason is simple: if this is done incorrectly, you could lose visibility in Google’s organic SERP’s.

Therefore, an expert marketing consultant needs to determine where keyword cannibalisation is occurring and then agree with the business on which page is weaker. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, it’s a good idea to merge pages using permanent redirects so that link equity flows to the main page.

Make the main page stand out.

Sometimes, once you have set out which pages will be the main ones, they may need re-optimising.
This can mean that the weaker pages have been redirected, and that 301 redirects are in place.
Then we can look at on-page SEO and ask ourselves: could we better optimise on-page SEO signals to stand out even more?

Frequently asked questions:

What is keyword cannibalisation?

Keyword cannibalisation is a problem on many service-based and e-commerce websites.

It’s when a business creates multiple pages trying to rank for the same keyword.

With better web design planning and then creating an ongoing content calendar, it’s perfectly possible to avoid keyword cannibalisation issues.

The main rule to keep in mind is simple: create a main page for each main keyword. Then make that as strong as possible, rather than creating multiple pages for the same keyword.

Produce a winning page and keep it updated.

This is the best advice we can offer: when improving a business’s organic search engine optimisation, it’s not about creating multiple pages that all sell or say the same thing.

It’s important to make that page your best effort.

To make sure it’s better than competitors and ranks higher on the first page.

Now, to do this, the page needs to address a keyword without overlapping with content marketing.

However, keep Google EEAT in mind as well.

What does Google EEAT mean?

Google EEAT stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

Therefore, in terms of keyword cannibalisation, it’s far better to show through, say, a piece of long-form blog post that you have written a really comprehensive article that answers that question in-depth.

That’s far better than writing “content thin” content marketing that keeps repeating similar advice over and over like a broken record.

How can a content calendar help prevent keyword cannibalisation from occurring?

A content calendar allows you to plan what you will be writing about over, say, the next 6 months.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the plan will be immune from keyword cannibalisation, as the copywriter may end up writing about the same thing.

However, by planning, you can think through which queries we want to answer and, by perhaps writing about clearly separate topics, you prevent keyword cannibalisation.

How can revisiting and updating existing content marketing help to prevent keyword cannibalisation?
So, for example, some businesses write as a matter of routine, say “The best E-bikes of 2026”, and then publish a new piece every year. But you sometimes are better off keeping the URL and rewriting the page. So new products are mentioned, new advice is offered, but the URL itself stays the same.

 

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